Lesson 4.1.4.8

4.1.4.8 Technological change Quiz: AQA Economics, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson 4.1.4.8, Technological change: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Economics (7136), Unit 1: Individuals, firms, markets and market failure, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. What term describes the commercial exploitation of a new idea or invention?

    • Invention
    • Creative destruction
    • Research
    • Innovation

  2. How does technological change primarily help firms to reduce their average costs of production?

    • Increasing productivity
    • Increasing marginal revenue
    • Raising interest rates
    • Decreasing output

  3. What process occurs when new innovations displace existing products and destroy old markets?

    • Product differentiation
    • Creative destruction
    • Dynamic inefficiency
    • Creative accounting

  4. How do high initial technology investment costs affect a market's structure?

    • Raises entry barriers
    • Lowers entry barriers
    • Increases substitute products
    • Promotes perfect competition

  5. A new machine reduces a firm's average cost from £8 to £6. What has increased?

    • Dynamic inefficiency
    • Productive efficiency
    • Allocative efficiency
    • X-inefficiency

  6. A firm's labour productivity rises from 40 to 50 units per worker per day with no change in wages. Unit labour cost falls by:

    • 10%
    • 50%
    • 20%
    • 25%

  7. Which of these is an example of technology creating an entirely new market?

    • Steam engines
    • Horse-drawn carriages
    • Smartphone applications
    • Paper ledgers

  8. Replacing manual workers with automated robots in manufacturing is an example of changing what?

    • Production methods
    • Consumer demand
    • Market structure
    • Price elasticity

  9. Technological change raises output per hour from 200 to 260 units. The percentage increase in productivity is:

    • 30%
    • 130%
    • 23%
    • 60%

  10. Why might a firm delay adopting new cost-saving technology?

    • Zero transition expense
    • High sunk costs
    • Low fixed costs
    • Guaranteed profits

  11. What type of innovation changes the method by which goods are produced?

    • Product innovation
    • Market innovation
    • Financial innovation
    • Process innovation

  12. What term describes the development of a new or significantly improved good?

    • Process innovation
    • Factor mobility
    • Product innovation
    • Creative destruction

  13. A new technology raises fixed costs from £100,000 to £160,000 but cuts variable cost per unit from £4 to £2. Total costs are equal at an output of:

    • 60,000 units
    • 30,000 units
    • 40,000 units
    • 15,000 units

  14. Fixed costs rise by £60,000, but variable cost falls by £2. Above what output is total cost lower?

    • 120,000 units
    • 30,000 units
    • 20,000 units
    • 60,000 units

  15. What negative labour market effect can result from technological change in production?

    • Cyclical unemployment
    • Seasonal unemployment
    • Frictional unemployment
    • Structural unemployment

  16. The expansion of electric vehicles directly created a new market for which product?

    • Refinery capacity
    • Internal combustion engines
    • Charging infrastructure
    • Carburettor components

  17. A firm saves £0.50 per unit on 40,000 units because of new technology. Its total saving is:

    • £20,000
    • £80,000
    • £2,000
    • £200,000

  18. What impact do legal patents for new technology have on market entry barriers?

    • Eliminates entry barriers
    • Decreases entry barriers
    • Removes monopoly power
    • Increases entry barriers

  19. If technology raises worker productivity while wages stay constant, unit labour costs will:

    • Double
    • Fall
    • Remain unchanged
    • Rise

  20. What term describes replacing workers with technology in the production process?

    • Dynamic efficiency
    • Capital substitution
    • Diminishing returns
    • Division of labour

All AQA Economics quizzes